


A Matter of Justice

by burning_nova



Category: The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Implied Torture, Imprisonment, Original Character Death(s) (unseen)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-05
Updated: 2012-11-05
Packaged: 2017-11-18 00:48:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/555044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burning_nova/pseuds/burning_nova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They hadn't know who she was.  It still wasn't an excuse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Matter of Justice

Her hands were shaking as she held the cup of coffee. In the rooms next to her she could here the muffled voices of Cosgrove and Yamagata. Someone would be in to interview her as well. She couldn't bring herself to take a sip from the cup. The door opened. 

A woman in a dark, conservative pants suit walked to the other side of the table. She sat down, placed a recorder in the middle of the table and took out a laptop. The laptop woke up from sleep mode after a few moments. The woman did not look at her until she had finished setting up her computer. 

“We will be taking your formal interview today, Lieutenant Sanders. Is there any reason you believe you will need the presence of a doctor at any point during this interview?” 

“No.” She replied. 

“Then we will begin.” The woman turned on the recorder. 

“This is Agent Miranda Engvall with Lieutenant Monica Sanders. Lieutenant Sanders will be recounting the events that led to the capture of twenty-eight United States military officers and researchers and the execution of twenty-five.”

“Twenty-four.” 

“Excuse me?”

“Only twenty-four were executed. Doctor Monroe is still alive. His sentence ends only when he dies.”

“Correction, the execution of twenty-four and life sentence of one Doctor Victor Monroe.” Engvall stated, then tapped her fingers on her keyboard for a moment in an irritated fashion. She had dark hair, light brown eyes, and skin a few shades lighter than Heimdall's. She did not think she would every forget that man or those piercing red eyes that seemed to look straight through her and past her all at once. 

All-Seeing Heimdall.

Would he say anything about this interview? 

“Correct.” She said instead. 

“I will like to ask a series of questions before you start. Do you know who it was that captured you and the others?” 

“Yes.” 

“Can you tell us their names?”

“Yes.” 

“Who was it that captured you?”

“Asgardian soldiers.” 

“Did you know the reason you were captured?”

“No.”

“Do you know the reason now?”

“Yes.” 

“Do you know why you were not executed?”

“Yes.” 

“Please state those reasons at this time.”

“We were arrested for the incarceration and torture of a member of a royal family of Asgard. I was spared execution because I showed her kindess.” Engvall frowned. “That was what they said. I-I gave her medicine and tried to keep her from crying when everything seemed to cause her pain. I had not knowingly participated in her capture or voluntarily stayed. I did my duty to my country even if I did not agree with it.” 

“Who is she?”

“Sigrun Lokasdottir. She is the child of Loki Odinson and a Chitaurri of some kind.” She hesitated then added. “She is a very pretty child.” Despite previous interviews and a debriefing, Engvall clearly looked surprised at the news, as if hearing it aloud made it realer. Or maybe she could not imagine the child of a Chitaurri as pretty. Sanders said nothing more on it. 

“Please begin.”

“I don't know everything, and some of what I am going to tell you is based off what I had been told.”

“That is fine. Continue.” 

“Alright.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. 

“Princess Sigrun -”

“Princess, no one mentioned she was a princess.”

“I thought it was self evident. Loki is a prince of Asgard, was king when he fell. I didn't mean to address her by title but I've heard it so much it just came out. It was not a good idea to speak of her, there, in Asgard, not in front of Asgardians.” 

“Continue.”

“I had not known about the girl until I had been assigned to the remote facility known in the site known as Raliegh. My transfer occurred at the same time she arrived in a secure container. I had not known at the time that she had been in there. 

“I understand that after the Battle of New York that a military unit conducting a safety sweep found the child in a Chitaurri craft, between several fallen aliens. The child appeared humanoid but her appearance made it clear she was not. She reacted like a human child would. It was believed that she may have been a human-alien hybrid either developed pre or during invasion, the extent of the aliens' technology remaining an uncertainty.

“However DNA tests, or whatever equivalent they have of genetic material, that could be performed on her revealed that she had no human DNA or earth DNA whatsoever. In fact she tested positive with Chitaurri DNA. Shortly after she was moved to the facility for processing.”

“That is correct.” Engvall confirmed. 

“At that point she was treated along the lines of inhuman subjects and a series of tests run on her. My direct involvement with her pre-arrest was minimal, ma'am. I had to guard her cage while a change in shift occurred. She was crying so I entered and attempted to comfort her.”

“Can you describe what condition in you found her in at that time?”

“Visibly distressed. She was in a cage without even a blanket for cover. A series of tubes and IVs had been inserted into her body. Her ribcage was visible and her face appeared covered in tear tracks. I have two sons, I couldn't let her cry. So I grabbed one of her hands as she reached for me and tried to comfort her through the bars of the cage. She quieted down and I managed to sing her to sleep very quietly.

“As the child of a jotun-”

“What is a jotun?”

“Loki of Asgard's species, his particular being a frost giant. As I was stating as a child of a jotun she would not feel the cold very well but while the room was kept a comfortable temperature for humans it was perhaps a bit too warm for her. Or that was the only thing she was able to concentrate on in the room. I am not sure. I saw her once in Asgard. She was dressed in a full length tunic and tights, but Asgard's weather is very pleasant, more comfortable than that of that room.

“After she fell asleep I stood back outside of my post. Maybe an hour later I was sent to another post and that was the last time I saw her on Earth. A week later I woke up when I was dragged out of bed with the rest of the guards and researchers by Asgardian soldiers. I don't remember their faces merely that trying to fight back was futile. I tried to identify them while I was imprisoned but never made a positive identification. 

“I was knocked unconscious. The next thing I knew I woke up in the a cell in the dungeons.”

“At that point you had no idea what your crimes were?”

“No. Asgardians look human and for a moment we suspected that we had been ambushed and taken over by a foreign force. One of the soldiers, Captain Ericson, attempted to tell us otherwise but his broken jaw prevented it.”

“Were you given basic medical treatment?”

“Yes, but not immediately. We were given medical treatment several hours later. None of our injuries were life threatening.”

“You said they didn't torture you but there is evidence that Sargent Yamagata's hand was crushed.”

“That was the result of other prisoners, Asgardian in origin. Yamagata had gotten too close to the bars of an adjoining cell. A prisoner grabbed his arm and crushed his hand. Several guards entered the adjoining cell and had them separated. By then it was too late. Yamagata was taken to the healers.”

“So while the official policy was not to harm you, that did not mean the citizens did not.”

“That is correct. Our treatment was decent. Maybe our bread was too hard and our soup stale but we were never intentionally poisoned or harmed until the time of the execution.”

“What else happened after you awoke from the cells, after medical? When were you told of the reason you were in Asgard>” 

“The very next day. We were paraded into the main hall of the palace in front of the royal family and several Asgardian officials. I don't know if they were just noblemen or a mixture of them and commoners. We were shackled and escorted by a troop of guards into the main hall. 

“Dr. Rosa Rodriguez was crying. She and Emily Pinkerton, her assistant. The rest of us attempted to look unaffected. The civilians were having a harder time but they did not cry. It was unbearable in some ways. Their eyes were accusing and you could feel how much they hated us. And that's the funny thing of it all. They do not like Loki, save perhaps his family and very few others. That much I am certain of, they did not like him, maybe even hated him, but their loyalty to the royal family made an attack against one of them an attack on them all.” 

“What was said to you there?” 

“'Mortals, you are in Asgard, the realm Eternal, accused of crimes against a subject of Asgard.'” She stopped. She could not go on. She felt as if though she were standing there again. Seeing the All Father stare at her from his throne, eye cold and hard. Thor next to him and staring at her with unbridled hatred. The queen's face similar to her husband but her eyes moving over them in a slow calculating fashion, attempting to gauge something of their guilt as Odin spoke their crimes. 

Torture. Kidnapping. Imprisonment. Mutilation.

“Do you need a moment?” Engvall asked Sanders. 

“No.” She said after taking a breath. She just had to go through this once more. After that it would be over, she could put it behind her. Keep it to the depths of her nightmares. 

“'The daughter of Asgard's second heir, Loki Odinson. The charges are as followed: Kidnapping, as no attempt had been made to locate the child's parents or her placement within a situation that would indicate the presence of a form of formal guardianship of a ward. 

“'Thus the following charge: Imprisonment. My guards found the child in a cage without even the most basic of comforts. Thus come the last two charges: Torture and mutilation. There were visible signs of experimentation upon the child, and was found with no less than five needles inserted into her being.'” She paused and took a deep breath. “'Further searches of your records corroborate the conclusion that she had been tortured. The child was referred as specimen I. 

“'Finally, mutilation.'” The anger in his voice, the condemnation. Once that word had slipped his mouth they knew they would die. Even if they were not sentenced officially, the people in the room would not let them return to Earth. No, those hard piercing stares had confirmed it. Sanders recalled praying but for what she did not know exactly, only that she wanted to live and wake up from the nightmare. 

“'The child's tongue was removed. The most recent logs by one of your scientists informs us it was taken to serve as a tissue sample, and the removal ensured that her cries would no longer serve as a distraction during the remainder of the experimentation process, which would have resulted in death.'” A loud gasp came from the crowd when the king relayed Sigrun's mutilation. They had known but not the extent. 

Thor had lunged at them, only held back by three warriors next to him. The queen covered her mouth and made a heartbroken sound. The king's face remained passive, an unmovable stone representing a foreign, quite literally alien, notion of justice. 

Then a collective roar of outrage came from all around them. The guards surrounding them had to protect them from sudden attacks, men and women bombarded them from all sides. One woman, in a fine green dress, managed to grab a hold of a nurse's hair ripping off a large segment before the guards managed to push her back. That was when the king placed down his staff, let out a blast of power (it was indescribable almost, a wave of kinetic energy pushing everyone *down*) and yelled 'SILENCE'.

The crowd stopped, the guards using the moment to push them farther back. She relayed this quickly to Engvall. The king quickly restored order and continued. “'If found guilty of all charges then the punishment shall be death.'”

“Why were you not at least imprisoned?”

“I hadn't been there long enough to do anything they considered executable.”

“So you did receive a punishment?”

“Yes.” 

“What was it?”

“I don't remember.” 

“What do you mean?”

“My punishment, I don't remember it. I can remember the others' but not my own. Doctor Cosgrove's brilliance was taken from her. She literally came back a dumber person. Yamagata's hand is permanently crippled which was considered punishment enough, his career meaning that much to him. I can't remember my own sentence. I will know once it happens but not sooner.”

“Could the others tell us?”

“I think so.” Sanders was not worried she didn't know why she wasn't worried. Something to do with the magics used on them when sentenced. She should worry but she cannot. She stared at Engvall. “I can't tell you what happened after, other than what I heard. We were left in the cells while they investigated. Several of us were taken out for interrogations, but from it seemed they wanted to confirm things they already knew.”

“Such as?”

“Did you do this. Were these your reasons. Things like that. I wasn't called out.”

“You were gone nearly half a year.” 

“It seemed longer.” Sanders said. “We barely moved from the cell. Once a day we were taken to the bathhouse and small garden for prisoners. It was nice, but it only served to remind us what we missed. The cells next to us started to fill up with people, too. Thieves, small criminals, oath breakers.”

“We kept track of time as best as we could but the days are longer there and our watches had been taken. Our clothing replaced. There were times I wandered if I'd die in the cell before they'd sentenced us.”

“Were you able to present a defense?”

“Yes, but we had nothing to say other than what they knew and it could not be made out in a different light. I think they could have forgiven murder with high enough a repayment, blood money.”

“Weregild.”

“They called it that, yes.” She looked at her now cold coffee. “I think they couldn't, though, because she was royalty. Even if we hadn't known it, we could discern she was sentient, could think. That is what doomed us...or maybe they just needed a scape goat.”

“You mentioned that the child is fine.”

“She is doing better.” She stared at just to the left of Engvall's left ear. “You wouldn't be able to tell she was the same child except for maybe her gray skin and red eyes. She runs, laughs, and smiles. She talks. She wasn't able to do that by the time she left the center, but she should have. She was old enough.”

“How was she able to talk again?”

“She was gifted a new tongue. The guards spoke about it, not caring whether we heard about it or not. A metal tongue crafted from--by--- I can't remember that. But it is a silver color, not actual silver, and enchanted by elves to let her taste and move the tongue as she would a natural one. A true silvertongue but the way they said it was half-sad, half-angry.”

“Who were they angry at?” 

“Us, Loki. I don't know but there is a lot of anger in Asgard, brewing under the picture-perfect setting.”

“What happened to Loki?”

“I don't know. Punished, I guess. News of him never reached us and he wasn't at the execution.” 

“You said you saw Sigrun once. Where was that?”

“At the execution. she was standing off to the side with the rest of the royal family. Her grandmother was holding her. She became restless as time passed. We were sentenced individually. Crimes listed off one by one, then the evidence presented. Once the judgment of death was announced we were hung. Two were beheaded.” She traced the rim of her cup. “I thought I was going to die. I was the twelfth one called up. When I was found, not innocent, but not warranting death I didn't know what was going to happen. We were pulled aside and not told anything.

“Doctor Monroe was the last to go. You know, I think he was looking forward to death but his sentence...it will be torture. There is no way around it. Until the day he dies.”

“What was special about Monroe?” 

“He cut out her tongue.” She looked at Engvall. “There was something wrong with him; something that had been there before this had begun. I think that is why he could do it. When we were in the cell together we got a glimpse at it but that was all...he made me want to sleep next to the bars separating our cell from the Asgardians'. Then there were times I didn't go to sleep because I thought he would kill us all in our sleep.

“The guards would have stopped it but how many of us would die before? It seems like something stupid to worry about now when we knew we would die but every moment we lived was that much more precious because of it.” She looked at her. “We talked about our families, our friends. What we would say to them. Do you think I could tell them?”

“It depends on the content. Give me an example.”

“Rosa, Doctor Rodriguez, wanted to say she loved her-her-her...” She frowned. “It, she had a...no, no. They took that! They took it! Why? Why?” She said and hurled the cup at the wall. The coffee splattered. 

“I don't know.” A hesitation then. “You mentioned your sons earlier. Tell me about them.”

“I have two boys, they're staying with my mother. They're six and eight, Mark and Luke.”

“What did you want to say to them?”

“That I love them.” She looked away. “Can we stop now?”

“We'll take a small break. There are just a few more questions to cover.” Sanders nodded and looked at the splatter feeling her eyes tear. Engvall stood up and left the room. 

“She was such a pretty baby.” She repeated and closed her eyes.


End file.
